The last few years he taught architecture at Philadelphia Community College, Tom Higgins noticed two things about his students: Their computational math skills were lacking, and they spent a lot of time playing video games.
What if, he thought, there was a video game that would teach basic math?
Higgins deposited the notion in his Great Ideas That Never Materialize file.
When he concluded his 44-year teaching career in 2012, Higgins went to work on making his idea a reality.
"I finally had the time to work on it," said Higgins, 65, of Ruscombmanor Township.
The result: "Pizza Math."
Players activating the game find slices of pizza with numbers on them falling like rain on Chef Panza, a panda driving a pizza delivery truck.
The idea is relatively basic: Players select numbers and make an equation to earn points.
For example, a player who'd select slices numbered 5 and 2 would have to find a 7 to complete an addition equation.
The player also can select subtraction, multiplication or division.